The Minister of Health in Eastern Lakes State has said no medical workers are being sent to the areas where cases of cholera have been reported due to shortage of funds.

Dr. Achol Marial told says the outbreak came at a time when the state has no budget to respond to the outbreak.

“We have no funds to deploy more staff in those places that are affected by the cholera outbreak,” he told Mingkaman FM, a local community radio station there.

Fourteen people died of the disease in Shambe and lang-Matot islands recently.

He says the state government even has no means of getting fuel for a motorboat that could take health workers across the River Nile to the areas affected.

“After securing funds, the motorboat will start moving,” Dr Marial stressed.

He appealed to health partners to help respond to the outbreak.

Cases of the disease were first reported in June last year in Juba, and new cases continue to be reported in different states.

In Jonglei, health workers said an assessment that ended this week found that 17 had died of the disease over the past one week.

Cholera is spread through eating contaminate food or dirty water, and it can be prevented through proper hygiene.